Ungovernor Robert Edmund Dunlap 1896 and 1900

Although the Prohibition Party would continue to run gubernatorial candidates in Washington up to 1916, it really ceased being a political organization after the 1892 election and instead became a full-time moral crusade. Never again would they poll as high as they did in 1892, and never again would they attract a candidate with the sort of strong civic credentials as Judge Greene.

This is not to say the political movement for prohibition was dying. While the Prohibition Party was tearing itself apart with inner squabbles over non-alcohol related issues such as fusion with the Populists, equal rights for women, etc., another political group was forming with more focus, the Anti-Saloon League. And as the political stock of the ASL rose, the Prohibition Party came to be viewed as a home to cranks and extremists. Members of the Party who wanted any sort of respectable professional career or social standing quietly faded into one of the major parties and continued their anti-alcohol work inside the Machine. Even Judge Greene rejoined the Republican Party by 1896.

The Party’s candidate for the 1896 and 1900 campaign was R.E. Dunlap, an evangelist associated with the Disciples of Christ. Born in Jan. 1850, Rev. Dunlap was raised in Illinois, married in Missouri in 1871 (“the culmination of a little red schoolhouse romance”) and began a six-year job teaching school in northeast Kentucky.

Rev. Dunlap’s obituary recounted his early missionary work during his Kentucky years, stating he “conducted his own church circuit, walking or riding a borrowed horse to reach small remote congregations which seldom mentioned money. Later he attended Lexington college (Now transylvania), was employed by the Kentucky state board of his church, returned to Illinois where he had spent early years of his life, and was sent to Montana by a missionary board.”
In 1886 Dunlap was stationed in the Deer Lodge, Montana area for three years. “His ministry was vigorous and successful, with special attention to the youth. In this Mrs. Dunlap took strong leadership. She made as many as sixty calls a month on Sunday School promotion, said Dunlap, while he made only forty calls for the church.”

In 1888 he visited Seattle. According to the book Washington-Northern Idaho Disciples by Orval Peterson (1945), “In 1888, R.E. Dunlap was called from Deer Lodge, Montana, to hold a brief meeting in Seattle. The city was in its youth, and Mr. Dunlap saw the possibilities of a church, so he suggested to H.C. Shuey and John James, elders of the church, that they secure lots in a new addition to the city for building purposes. Upon his suggestion they secured a lot at 902 Harrison Street from D. T. Denny and another on Latona Avenue at Forty-second Northeast. The First Christian Church used the 902 Harrison Street location and later built a parsonage at 912 Harrison Street. On Latona Avenue a chapel was built, and from the Latona Chapel, University Church developed.”

From about 1889-1891, Dunlap apparently served in a post called “State Evangelist” in Washington. But he was called to Seattle in 1891.

According to Peterson, “R. E. Dunlap became the pastor of First Church, October 1, 1891, and lived in the Harrison Street parsonage. At that time there was a small Sunday school in the Latona Chapel. Later, Mr. Dunlap was invited to preach following the Sunday school hour. Professor Reeves, the acting president of the State University, served as superintendent of the Sunday school and elder of the church. The Latona Chapel was soon outgrown, and in 1901 a frame building was erected on Tenth Avenue Northeast, now called Roosevelt Way, and East Forty-second Street.”
Although Seattle remained his headquarters, Dunlap became sort of a circuit-riding and roving evangelist, helping communities form their own Disciples of Christ churches. In the early 1890s he frequently visited Everett. In 1895 he worked in the area of Grangeville, Idaho. In 1896, Lewiston, Idaho. In 1897, Chehalis, Wash. Somewhere in there he apparently worked in St. John, Wash. as well.

Rev. Dunlap had a special interest in the cause of prohibition. He ran twice for Governor in Washington as the Prohibition Party candidate. In 1896 he polled 2,542 votes (2.78%) as the only third party candidate. In 1900 he lost some ground, gaining only 2,103 votes (1.97%), but that third party tally was also split among two other minor party candidates, and Dunlap had still placed 3rd among all five running for Governor. The three third party candidates combined had enough votes to have changed the outcome of the election had they not been on the ballot.
It would seem that in the eyes of his church, Dunlap might’ve been spending too much time on the anti-alcohol crusade, or at least that is how I read the clues. One 1904 church writer noted, “He still preaches the gospel as occasion offers, but gives his time largely to prohibition. Twice he has been the candidate of the Prohibition party for governor.”
At an Oct. 15, 1909 Disciples of Christ national meeting, Rev. Dunlap gave a sermon called, “Apathy of Church Toward Liquor traffic.” His sense of humor comes through and one can see why he was such a popular speaker. Here’s a sample:

“Some siren voice sings us to sleep, and we justify the wicked for a reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him. The situation seems to be described in a parody on the twenty-third Psalm. It reads about this way: ‘The politician is my shepherd, I shall not want for anything during the campaign. He leadeth me into the saloon for my vote’s sake, he filleth my pockets with bad cigars, my beer runneth over. He maketh me great, swelling promises, he leadeth me in green pastures of tariff reform and beside the still waters of prosperity, for his own sake. He restoreth my confidence, he inquireth after my family, even to the third and fourth generation. Yea, though I walk through the rain and the mud to vote for him, and shout myself hoarse, when he is elected straightway he forgetteth me and he forgetteth his promises also. Though I meet him in his own house, he knoweth me not. Surely the wool hath been pulled over my eyes all the days of my life, and yet I dwell in the ranks of the old party forever.’ Now, I am going to have to preach a sermon. That is my business. It is the business of this Convention. We are into this battle. We are into it as a church.”
From 1912-1926 the Dunlaps lived in Arizona and Idaho. He ran for Governor of Arizona in 1916 in a race where his 396 Prohibition Party votes (0.68%) could’ve made a difference in the outcome. He seemed destined to be a spoiler.
Around 1926, “Rev. and Mrs. Dunlap decided to live in the peace and quiet of Vashon Island.” But, “he was called to the Roosevelt Heights church, Tacoma, as a supply pastor, and filled the pulpit for two years.”

In Jan. 1936 he suffered a stroke on his 86th birthday. He died June 1, 1938 in Tacoma. Rev. Dunlap was buried in Vashon Island, which is, by coincidence, the home of Gene Amondson, the current Prohibition Party candidate for President.

[Update Nov. 15, 2019: A few years after I wrote the above article while visiting Vashon Island I paid my respects to Dunlap's final resting place under the shade of tree at the rear of the cemetery]

-- By Steve Willis

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